Jealousy Letter
by happy ametuer
Summary: When Anna leaves Luin for Asgard after a shaky part of their romance Kratos goes to her father to see if it's true. Not only was it true but he received a letter from her. As it's read to him Kratos feels nothing but intense jealousy.


I'll give credit where credit is due. I got the idea from Dancing at Midnight by Julia Quinn. To make the main male character (John) come to the main female character (Belle aka Arabelle), Belle got her cousin to tell John that she found another man to make him jealous. It was a test to see if John had feelings for her or not.

The book is actually much better than I'm showing. Julia Quinn is an author worth your time. One of the greatest romance author in my most honest opinion.

* * *

It was galling.

Kratos stands there at Irving's front door hesitant to enter. There isn't anything he should be nervous about how her father will react to him even after . . . _that_. No, Irving is a mild mannered aged man who takes life patiently with a calm mind. It's _her_ that turned him suddenly into a skittish teen with his first crush. He had absolutely no reason to . . . until _that_.

Despite himself, guilt churns in his stomach as her bitter words echo across his mind. "How dare you do this!" "For my own good?!" "You think you can just control my life?!" "Don't even think about giving me a lecture!" What he did was for her own good. She can't associate herself with someone like him. Cruxis is still after him and his presence around her will just bring more attention from the Desians to her. Someone like her doesn't deserve the fate that awaits back at that ranch.

So he tried to break it off from her by distancing himself from her. It was for her own protection, but did she listen to common sense? No! No, every day after he started to ignore her (although he will admit that wasn't the best course) she just came back and back and back to confront and demand the reason why the hell he was treating her like a pariah as she oh-so-nicely put it. Of course, he won't tell her every detail involving the fact about Cruxis so his only response was merely "Go. It's for your own good. You will thank me for this someday."

Sure, her reaction was not only galling and frustrating but also resulted in the red handprint that colored his face for the next few hours.

Kratos swallows his pride as his hindsight reminds him of his avoidance of Luin after that and just how wrong it was for him to do that instead of explaining the situation to her the best he can.

In the in, he is reluctant to admit, it was _Yuan_ who convinced him to come back. He came in his now-usual mocking way laughing at how ironic it is that _he_ is the one taunting the love-struck fool who is now _Kratos_. That man will never forgive or forget the things Kratos said before Mithos prompted that change of heart before they became Kharlan heroes. Anyhow, Yuan came laughing at how the mercenary lost his girl by acting like an idiot and now she fled to Asgard to forget everything about him.

And now he is here to prove Yuan, and his nerves, wrong. A woman like her would never run from her past. Even if it was as horrible as what she faced in that hellhole ranch north of the village she would face it head on and conquer with flying war colors and grand fireworks at the end. Running isn't like her--not at all! But still . . .

Kratos shoves away his turbulent thoughts and knocks on the door. It opens with a creaking swing and reveals the man called Irving by all acquaintances.

"Ah," he goes with slightly widening eyes, "Kratos. I can't really say that I'm surprised."

"Then you knew I would . . ." He doesn't know _what_ he would do, but it was something.

It was galling how confusing his life became ever since she entered his life.

Irving nods. "Yes, I knew you would. What you are going through is just the complex part of this."

"'This?' What are you talking about?"

Irving only steps aside and ushers him in. "You want to know how my daughter Anna is, don't you? That is why you came."

Kratos steps in. "I heard that she left for Asgard. Is this true?"

Irving shuts the door behind him and walks to another room. "Yes, Kratos, it is. Anna was just so . . . lost when you left. I decided that it was best if I sent her to a dear friend of mine's so she could get a better grip on herself. I preferred her in a fury rather than in that gray doldrums."

His heart twists in agony and guilt. In the past year he had only seen her cry once. He tries to imagine her silent with empty eyes and his heart gives another excruciating twist. He himself also prefers her spitting fire rather than that sober reality. But it was all for her own good. She would never thank him but she will look back upon these days and be grateful that she never stayed with him.

Still it doesn't improve his humor any better.

Irving returns with an envelope and a folded letter. "But I just received a letter from her yesterday morning about how she is."

He had to ask. He just _had_ to. "Is she any better?"

Irving nods, more enthusiastically this time. "Yes she is."

Kratos smiles even as he realizes that "heart break" is a literal term. "That is good."

"In fact, she found another man."

_What?! This soon?_

Irving holds up the letter for skimming. "She says that she's very happy with this man, happier than she has ever been before."

With eyes devoid of emotion, Kratos goes, "How . . . nice for her. I'm glad she was able to move on."

"Isn't it?" Irving continues, "It says here that he is a rather tall man with a strong stature with strange colored hair." He glances up at Kratos apologetically. "I'm sorry you had to hear this. I'm having trouble memorizing this so I can see him for myself. I wouldn't want Anna to find the wrong man again. Not that you _are_ wrong but after what happened recently . . ."

"I take no offense." Something black and sinister stirs in the back of his mind.

Irving smiles with relief. "Good, good. I'm glad you don't. However, I'm sure that he will be right for her. According to this letter he is a very well-mannered man with a civil occupation of an innkeeper. She said that there was some trouble because they were so opposite of each other but they have come to happy and peaceful terms. It even says here 'You will be amazed at how polite he his. I'm convinced that even angels look flawed compared to him.' Well, Anna _is_ honest with people and facts even if she is a little mule headed."

A savage, primitive part of his conscience growls with hate at this unknown man.

Oblivious to Kratos' raging emotions, Irving keeps reading over the letter. "I'm a little concerned about the age difference of seven years as it says here, but Anna does say that she usually enjoys the company of older men due to the fact that most of them mature by an older age. She assumes that men her age are more immature than she can tolerate. Although I would rather not I must agree that men mature much slower than women typically do. Her conclusion is that youthful immaturity is what ended her last relationship."

He's four thousand years old! That is as old as anyone can damn well get! Even Yuan is two years his minor!

"Probably," he grunts. "Are you sure Anna would really write all that to you? I'm not calling you a liar, it is just that it seems rather strange that your daughter would write something like this to her father."

Irving frowns. "If you want proof then here. Read her letter."

Kratos takes the letter and intensely reads every word of her bold handwriting. Kratos scowls deeper and darker as he goes down the page, realizing that Irving had sugar coated the insulting comments. When he finishes it his knuckles turn a bone white under the force of his hands clutching the letter. There was one thing, however, that killed the last of his restraint.

Irving adds, "Anna did send a letter previous of this that had a part of it that had the man in it. I believe it said that he . . . reminded her a little like you. I wonder if that had anything to do with her initial attraction."

Rage. Fury. Wrath. All of that rolled into one black package of jealousy over this unnamed man. Imagining every painful torture with the faceless intruder suffering it, Kratos drops the paper in his hands and marches out the door. His intended destination: Asgard.

Irving picks up the fallen letter and watches out the window as Kratos marches away to Luin's exit. He shakes his head and moves back to the room he retrieved Anna's letter from. He sets the crumpled paper back on his desk and picks up the letter that truly addressed her father and scans over it. He shakes his head again. When Irving read over her plot for him to present a dunce letter to the man to make him jealous enough to finally confront her he thought his daughter was asking for trouble. However, as he read deeper into the letter Anna had provided him with enough logic and reasoning to put his doubts to rest. Knowing his daughter everything will be under control and in hand.

She will reach her goal. She's too willful for anything less than total success.

As he sets the letter back down on his desk he says, "Anna, you clever, stubborn girl. I believe you have that poor man wrapped around your fingers."

* * *

It's a love-hate relationship. They love each other but want to tear each other to pieces at the same time.

Love just isn't an emotion. It's an act.

Please review.


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